From the Indoor Garden Depot Blog: Cure The Winter Blues With A Year Round Indoor Garden

Getting through winter can be tough; it’s dark when you get to work, dark when you leave, and depending on where you live – there can definitely be a limit to the novelty value of all that snow.

The good news is that you don’t have to wait until Spring to get started with gardening again. And having something healthy, green and luscious can be a great way to brighten up your apartment! What’s more you’ll also be able to grow things that are either very hard to find in winter, or if you do find them they’ll be either insanely expensive or really bad quality. See also our Top 5 Reasons Why Gardening Should Be Your #1 New Years Resolution!

Below we lay out everything you will need to set up a winter garden. Read all the way to the end for a special treat thats guaranteed to cure your winter blues 😉

Light / Grow Lamp

The first and most important part of this whole setup is the light. As Dr Rob explains here, plants ‘eat’ light and convert it into chemical energy to fuel their growth. Not enough light = slow/weak growth. It’s important that you use a grow lamp specifically for plants – the normal type of light globe that’s screwed into your ceiling probably isn’t going to work. The problem with normal house globes is that they don’t offer the right frequencies of light for photosynthesis. More on that here.

Aaaanyway – we recommend using one of the options below.

Lamp Stand

There are a ton of different options here, and you should chose one that suits your space. One of the most important features to look for however is the ability to adjust its height. You will want to make sure that the globe is 3-4″ from the plant at all times. Obviously as the plant grows taller, this means the light needs to move up. For this reason (and also because they’re very affordable) we like desk lamps like the ones below.

Or for something a bit fancier (available in black and white):

Timer

There are a ton of options out there, but we usually endorse the KISS approach when it comes to timers. The only thing this timer needs to be able to do is turn on and off once per day. The same time every day is fine. Given the simplicity of our requirements, we find that mechanical timers are best. If you’ve already got one lying around, or want to do something a bit fancier with your scheduling, then by all means use a digital one – but they are usually a bit more expensive. You want the light to be on for 12 – 16 hrs per day. Usually it makes sense to synchronize this with your own waking hours, but if you wanted to do the opposite (and it’s not going to be in your bedroom) then that’s fine too.

World’s Smallest Garden

Last but not least 😉 is your World’s Smallest Garden Kit. Our latest v2.0 kits come with 3 interesting herb varieties, and everything you need to get started. Except for the bottles. You’re own your own there. But hey, it is winter and red wine bottles do work well. Just saying.

Now that you’re up to speed on lighting, we recommend checking out this blog next which covers all you need to know about selecting the right bottle for your garden.

Costs

Setup

The total cost for setting up and running a garden like this will vary based on your location. Here in the US Amazon Prime will deliver the grow light, lamp stand and timer to you for around $40.

Running

The running costs will depend on the wattage of the grow lamp, and you can calculate the exact cost here. Based on an average US residential electricity cost (of ~13c/kWhr) and 14hrs/day on-time, the grow lamps we recommend above will cost:

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About Urban Leaf

Urban Leaf helps you turn your window sill into an easy-care edible garden. One day we hope to reinvent the food system, but for now we’re focused on bringing a little bit of edible greenery into your life.